In a show of great power by the UP cops, Mathura Police thwarted forcible conversion of villagers from the district by arresting Christian preachers on Monday night. Thereafter the preachers were produced in court on Tuesday, following which they were remanded in judicial custody for a period of 14 days.

As per reports furnished by the villagers, some of the missionaries have been quite active in the area of Irauli Gurjar for the past one month and have been distributing Bibles to the residents.

According to one of the villagers, no one would lend a ear to the pleas of the preachers, as a result of which they got immensely on Monday and tried to “forcibly convert” certain schedule caste families in the village.

Talking about the incident, SP (rursal) Aditya Shukla said:

Police received a complaint from a villager after which seven people were arrested. They have been booked under IPC Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings).

Officials associated with the case further said that it was a woman named Mamta, who had recently moved to the village after getting married to a local named Pradeep Singh, who first called in the missionaries to perform prayers in her house. Mamta’s sister, Anita, who lives in Hathras, had recently converted to Christianity.

An official further enlightened:

Mamta’s family members alleged that while propagating their faith, the preachers began insulting other deities. Objecting to their comments, the family members approached local residents, who in turn informed police about the incident. Later, Pradeep’s uncle Lal Singh filed a formal complaint against seven people after which the arrests were made.

Talking about the identities of the missionaries arrested, the in-charge of Surir police station BN Singh said:

The accused have been identified as Stanlee Jacob from Tamil Nadu, David from New Delhi, Vijay Kumar from Odisha, Amit from Mathura, Sumit Varghese and Anita from Hathras, and Dinesh from Rajasthan. Jacob claimed the missionaries had not forced anyone to convert. He said that the Bible was distributed to those who had asked for it.